The boss of one of the defence firms building the new generation of nuclear submarines has played down Labour’s claims about Trident. Ian King, the chief executive of BAE Systems, was asked about warnings drones could soon leave the nuclear weapons system obsolete. In a letter to MPs he said that it was difficult to detect, let alone destroy, a nuclear submarine in a body of water as vast as the ocean. And he told members of the the Commons Defence Committee that the planned 18,000 tonne boats would be “very small” targets. Labour said that Mr King’s letter described how things stand at present, not in the future. The UK’s nuclear deterrent is designed to travel
undetected. ….. The chair of the committee Dr Julian Lewis had asked Mr King for an industry assessment of current and future technologies and their ability to accurately detect and track submarines. A Labour spokesman said: “We are taking the widest possible range of evidence and talking to BAE and every other source of expertise as part of our review of Britain’s defence needs over the coming decades. “While it’s unsurprising that this letter is simply a statement of the status quo, we will of course take it into account.